Tag: Cabriolet

It’s generally safe to say that we all like RUF. Their full builds can be spectacular both in appearance and performance, but almost any RUF to wear the badge, or simply share the name, possesses upgrades that make them very desirable. We very rarely see any related to the 964 so when we do come across one it’s always worthwhile to pause and take a closer look.

This is a 1990 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet that was sent off to RUF for a “full” CR4 conversion perhaps around the year 2000. Like many conversions what exactly is meant by “full” might be a matter of debate, but in this case the engine does appear to have been blueprinted by RUF with horsepower now at 330. That engine likely represents what buyers will care most about. From the documentation it looks like the owners of this car purchased it from RUF in May 2000, but it’s not clear when that means the conversion itself actually occurred. Maybe there is other documentation to support that. It then was imported into the U.S. where it has resided ever since.

Some of my favorite cars as one-off or special builds that you rarely ever see for one reason or another. These builds usually happen because of a special connection with the brand, most often thanks to spending a ton of money, that let you have certain modifications when ordering a car to be built. Some brands are pretty friendly and open with this kind of stuff while other brands will give you nothing and you’ll like it. Mercedes-Benz has always been very hush-hush with their special requests for customers so most people usually turn to aftermarket turners like Brabus or Renntech if they want something really special. If you do somehow get some special treatment from Mercedes, it usually isn’t found out about until the car comes up for sale because the kind of people who get special treatment from Mercedes don’t post about it on internet forums or Instagram. Today’s car, a 1994 E320 Cabriolet, is exactly that. Although this car has a long history with a little bit controversy as well. Get comfortable.

This 911 is a little bit of an oddity. Those familiar with the 911SC will recognize immediately that this 911 is not original. While Porsche long had been in the business of producing open-top cars, it took nearly 20 years for a true Cabriolet to make its debut for the 911. The 911 Targa had been around since nearly the 911’s inception, but not a Cabriolet. Perhaps Porsche was not confident in the survival of any open-roofed car given increasing safety standards; the short-lived Soft-window Targa was an engineering solution to that problem that quickly was abandoned. Still it wasn’t until 1983 that the first 911 Cabriolet was produced. That means that the car we see here, a 1978 Porsche 911SC Cabriolet, never really existed.

This 911 began as a 911SC Targa and at some point – we are not told when – its owner decided to convert it to a Cabriolet. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps it was done very early before the true SC Cabriolet was released because that’s really what the owner wanted. Or perhaps later for…reasons. Either way this 911 provides the very rare chance to own a first-year 911SC in full open-roof form. Is that something you should aspire to over a standard ’83 911SC Cabriolet? I’m not sure there’s a great reason to do so other than having a 911 that’s very unique. And I’ll admit it does look well executed.

Almost every Mercedes-Benz E320 Cabriolet I look at falls into the category of a really nice to exceptional example of one. This makes sense as a the W124 Cabriolet was an extremely expensive car when new in 1994 at $79,000 that equates to about $132,000 in today’s money. I told you these were really expensive. As a result and maybe even a little bit surprisingly, people took care of these cars if they held on to them past the normal three to five years from new ownership cycle that cars are usually subjected to. I’m sure that had a lot to do with the W124 Cabriolet not following the same deprecation curve as almost every other mass-produced post-war Mercedes in history that results in poor Craigslist postings and/or time spent at a BUY HERE PAY HERE car lot with four mismatched tires. Unfortunately, this 1994 up for sale in Georgia seems to have suffered that fate.

A little while back I wrote about the joys of top-down motoring. And, of course, the weather has not been cooperative since then. Nonetheless, sunnier days are ahead so I shall return to that theme with what looks to me like a pretty nice example: a Black 1995 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet with just under 61,000 miles on it. Of particular note on this 911 is its interior, which features beautiful Flamenco Red leather throughout with just the right amount of black contrast in the dash and carpets. That interior is a pretty rare find on a 993 and it looks really good here. As always, its contrast with the black exterior shows very well and serves to liven up the atmosphere created by that dark exterior color. That the Cabriolet makes the interior extra visible just makes it all the better.

Summer is approaching, which means warmer weather is on the way! At least that’s the theory. I’ve already seen that a baseball game has been postponed today because of snow. Still it’s probably safe to assume that it will be sunny and warm relatively soon and top-down motoring will once again be the thing to do. Back in the days when I actually drove on a daily basis I used to love the first few top-down drives of the Spring. They always brought a renewed sense of freedom and exhilaration to any drive. It was the best way to drive when I had nowhere to go. As the air grew warmer and the days longer I looked forward to those drives more and more. Even commuting wasn’t terrible.

So, let’s look at a Cabriolet then. Here we have an Atlas Grey Metallic 2004 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet with Natural Brown leather interior and a lovely 6-speed manual transmission. It only has 11,352 miles on it and the price is quite high so this isn’t bargain shopping by any means. But I wouldn’t expect a sale at this price anyway so perhaps it can be worked down to something more reasonable. While just about any top-down drive can be a joy, having 415 hp at your fingertips certainly makes things that extra bit more enjoyable. To quote Dr. Frasier Crane, “if less is more, then just think of how much more more will be!”

This is starting to get a little bit silly. As I mentioned in my most recent feature of a Turbolook Carrera Cabriolet, we’ve seen a decent number of these 911s, also known by their M491 option code, come up for sale recently. I wasn’t really looking to post more of them. But then three all popped up for sale within a few days of one another and there are a lot of similarities among them. I still wasn’t entirely sure about posting them, but honestly two of them are so interesting and unique that I simply could not pass them by. Given how similar they all are it made the most sense to bring them all together into a single post.

One piece of good fortune: among these three cars we have a representative of each Carrera model so regardless of which model M491 you’re looking for we’ve got you covered! The similarities: All three of these Carreras are in exceptionally good condition and sit with very low mileage. All are from the earlier side of 3.2 Carrera production, meaning they have the 915 5-speed transmission. Two are for sale from the sale seller, presumably as part of the same collection, and come with a few questions, but have crazy unique interiors. All three have very high prices; high enough that when I first came across the Coupe we’ll see below I thought the seller had misidentified a 930. And I still thought the price was too high!

Anyway, on to the cars. I’ll show them all before any discussion and in ascending order by price:

Turbo-look Carreras are becoming a regular occurrence around here. That’s good! These are some of our favorite of the classic 911s for their combination of 930 appearance, suspension, and braking, but in a little more refined and less high strung a package. They’re also pretty rare. We like rare.

We especially like rare 911s when they are looking their best and have spent a decent bit of time being driven by the owners who derive so much joy from them. Here all of these facets come together in this Venetian Blue Metallic 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet with Champagne interior. As I’ve noted with previous M491 Carrera posts, the later ’87-’89 model years represent a special subset of these cars given that they came with the G50 5-speed transmission and that there are fewer of them since the 930 was now back and available for the US market. For some wide-body top-down cruising, this 911 should provide just the thing you’re seeking.

In my long affinity for the Mercedes-Benz W124 Cabriolet, I have featured all kinds of examples. Rare color ones, expensive ones and even ones with V8s swapped into them. So naturally when I come across one in my cruise around the internet, I usually take a quick peek at it. Today’s W124 Cabriolets, a Signal Red example for sale in California and a black one listed in Connecticut, are both prime examples of these amazing drop top cruisers. You’d probably have a tough time finding any faults at all on either of these cars, but what if I told you that one was literally twice the price as the other? Yes, I’m serious.

Earlier this week I checked out a great 2000 Mercedes-Benz SL500 with some Designo touches that hit all the right buttons for me. Today, we have another Mercedes-Benz convertible with some Designo treatment, but this one is a little bit different. What we are looking at is a 2003 CLK430 finished in Designo Mocca Black paint with Designo light brown leather interior. I think the thing about the W208 is that it wasn’t really great at anything. It had the enormous task of replacing the W124 Cabriolet that was and still is an outstanding car in more ways than one, but the first-generation CLK Cabriolet was strange mash-up of W202 and W210 parts. Yes, it looked fresh at the time and had a lot of modern updates for its era, but at the end of the day you could really feel that the quality just wasn’t there like the W124. That doesn’t mean it is a bad car, but rather one that you knew from the beginning what you going to get out of it: an average experience.

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